In Switzerland, a corn based snack-bar under the brand CORNY is currently (quite heavily) promoted. Now, CORNY does actually have the meaning "of or relating to corn" (says Merriam-Webster online). However, somehow I cannot imagine that the product would be very successful in English speaking countries. The meaning "old-fashioned, tiresomely simple and sentimental" (again Merriam-Webster) seems to be predominant to me...
What does it have to do with trade marks? Not too much, admittely, but the CORNY brand is of course also registered as a trade mark in Switzerland. Not as a "pure" word mark, though. Which may or may not indicate that at least for some examiner at the trade mark office, the term still primarily means "of or relating to corn".
1 comments:
I have known this "corny" product since at least 1997 (from Germany) - strangely enough it does sound fine to the average German who will just think of "Korn" (corn) or "koerning", but maybe the Swiss are a bit better informed about the meaning of foreign words. :-)
Reminds me a bit of the US series "The Mentalist", which is on tv in the UK at the moment. Seems to work well for an US audience but really does not have the right connotation for a UK audience.
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